To all Parents, Old Boys and Members of the Prep Community

FROM THE HEADMASTER

Dear Parents, Old Boys, Staff Members, former Staff, Friends and Boys,

I hope the boys, teachers and staff have returned from the school holiday feeling refreshed and rested. My good wishes to everyone for a happy and rewarding second school term. Please join the boys and the school as often as possible to enjoy the many special events that will be on offer at Prep this term. The school centenary year celebrations are well underway and the country is on the brink of hosting the soccer world cup. We need to do our utmost to get out of bed in a positive and celebratory frame of mind and stay that way to enjoy every moment and every day with our friends and family. The school’s centenary and the world cup will only come around once in our life times. The choice is ours! Let’s not miss the opportunity to be friendly, engaging and welcoming hosts and excited participants in the months ahead.

It is our duty as parents, teachers and adults to provide an infectious and uplifting spirit of joy and celebration whenever the occasion arises. There is no better time than now!

The school’s good wishes to organiser Tim Whitfield (Parent) and all his helpers for a successful DPHS Aquellé Mudman event this Sunday. The event offers a real opportunity for our Prep boys to enjoy some rare adventure time and fun in a safe environment and well managed programme. The new Mudman venue is better in all respects to the Hazelmere Dam site where Mudman was held last year. The staff and teachers will be there in numbers to assist with marshalling duties and other tasks. The school extends a grateful thank you to Tim and everyone who will be helping on the day. Good luck to all the participants.

RICHARD NEAVE
Headmaster

CONGRATULATIONS

The following boys were selected for Central Durban U11 Cricket team:
Sean Gilson (Captain) and Bradley Hope

The following boys were selected for Central Durban U11 Cricket Invitational team:
Nicholas Pio and Zaid Jhavary

CALENDAR

RECEPTION UNIT NEWS

The boys all returned this term with big smiles and lots of news to share! The first week back is an exceptionally busy one. Free visual screening by Specsavers took place on Tuesday. Tomorrow the Reception Unit will be joining the rest of the school for the 2010 Centenary Photograph at Main Campus and on Friday Dr Darby-Wade, a dentist, will be visiting us to talk to the boys about dental hygiene and giving each pupil a presentation pack from Colgate. On Sunday, it is the DPHS Mudman/Mudskippers event at Thornlea Dam.

A warm welcome to Sheldon Govender and his family, who have joined the Reception Unit family this term. Sheldon has a big brother in Grade 6.

Congratulations to Justine Smit, our Blue Group teacher, who passed her examinations with flying colours. Justine now has an Honours Degree in Education.

JUNIOR PRIMARY NEWS

I trust that everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday and that all the boys have returned refreshed to face another busy and exciting term.

The first week has certainly set the tone with the final build-up to the Mudman event gaining momentum and we encourage as many families as possible to participate in this very enjoyable day on Sunday. The first Mini-Rugby session starts this Saturday and I thank the dads for the superb response we received to our request for team coaches for every week. The U9 teams are also scheduled to play their first inter-school rugby fixtures at the end of the week so it promises to be a very active weekend.

On Tuesday the boys were fortunate enough to enjoy the Nestlé Milo School Sampling Campaign which began with an informative presentation on healthy eating, moved on to teach the boys the diski dance and was completed when each boy was given a cup of milo- certainly a successful event all-round!

Each JP grade will be covering themes related to the Soccer World Cup during this term so that will add a very exciting and unique element as the term progresses.

Junior Primary Paper Recycling Challenge – Recyclers of the Week

• 1st Grade 3 Knatten (3m 95cm)
  
• 2nd Grade 3 Veerasamy (3m 15cm)
  

COAST 2 COAST 4 CANSA (C2C4C)

Fundraising and awareness campaign in support of the Cancer Association of South Africa
Websites – www.coast2coast4cansa.co.za
And www.cansa.org.za

Practically every one of our DPHS families has been affected by the impact of this dread disease at some time. Our School has been particularly touched by this in recent times with boys, staff members and parents having to undergo treatment for various forms of the disease. It is for this reason that the school has decided to support the C2C4C initiative in addition to remaining supportive of the annual ‘Feed the Babies’ organisation appeal, a most worthy cause with which our Prep families are already most familiar.

Many will already be aware of the Coast2Coast4CANSA awareness and fundraising campaign and the fact that in later April this year, five South Africans on jet-skis will travel over 2 800 kilometres of coastline off three Southern African countries, from Mozambique to Namibia. The list of expedition team jetski pilots includes the names of well-known DPHS Old Boys Russel Symcox, Jason Ribbink (also a Grade 0 parent) and Barry Lewin. Other pilots are Lance Klusener and Mark Addison.

Barry Lewin, with the C2C4C team, addressed the boys in assembly on Wednesday 14 April 2010 in the Maurice Wilkinson Hall about the motivation for their awareness campaign in support of CANSA as well as encouraging the boys to live healthy, balanced lives. Marine Conservationist Mark Addison’s presentation highlighted the fact that our natural resources were to be protected for the benefit of future generations.

After the assembly presentation, each boy was given a collection tin, branded with the C2C4C logo. It is hoped that each boy will use their distinctive tin to gather financial support for CANSA by placing monetary contributions in to the collection tin. Every bit of support counts! Should boys be able to fill their initial tin, they will be able to request a second collection tin should they wish to do so. The boys will then be asked to return their tins to school, whether donations have been collected or not, by Friday 30 April 2010. Class teachers will register the return of each boy’s tin and then pass the tins to the Deputy Headmaster. The tins will then be collected from the school by CANSA.

As part of our Information Technology and Media programme, our boys will be encouraged to follow the expeditions’ progress by visiting these centres in order to utilise the technology available to ‘track’ the riders on their journey.

The School would like to encourage the PREP Community to register their support for the C2C4C project by making a financial contribution. A tangible way of expressing our collective support for all the members of the DPHS community affected by cancer.

SPORT

RUGBY RESULTS

GLENWOOD FESTIVAL RESULTS

RUGBY Fixtures

DPHS/Mr Price Centenary National Rugby Festival

Thursday 29 April 2010

Friday 30 April 2010

Saturday 1 May 2010

GENERAL

MUDMAN – Sunday 18 April

The following are a few important instructions and directions for the aQuellé DPHS Mudman which takes place this Sunday at Thornlea Dam.

Entries
Entries are still being taken each morning from 7am to 8am outside the main hall and will be taken until Friday morning. Online entries close at midnight on Wednesday, 14th April. Entries will be taken on the morning of the event in the marquee at the dam. One DPHS pupil will win a flip in a helicopter from all the pre-entries taken at the school, and one entrant will win a new mountain bike in a lucky draw at the event. The class with the most entrants will win a prize and the class teacher of that class will also win a special prize.

Marshals
We still desperately need marshals so please can fathers in particular fill in the form at the end of this note so we can ensure we have enough marshals to make this a safe and fun experience for the boys.

Race route
I have ridden the mountain bike course and run the run route and both courses this year are much easier than in previous years. There are three events, the Full Distance Mudman (750m swim or 3,8km canoe, 20km MTB cycle, 5km run), Half Distance Mudman (375m swim or 1,8km canoe, 10km cycle and 2,5km run) and Mudskippers (short run, cycle and splash). The two Mudman events can be done as a team.

Start times

• 7.00am: Mudman registration and late entries starts
  
• 8.45am: Half Distance race briefing
  
• 9.00am: Half Distance Start
  
• 9.15am: Full Distance race briefing
  
• 9.30am: Full Distance Start
  
• 9.30am: Mudskippers registration and late entries start

Directions to Thornlea Dam

1. Get on to the N3 from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. It takes about 40 minutes to get to Thornlea from the Pavilion Shopping Centre, but there may be queues at the Dam Entrance and for parking so please leave enough time to get there, register and get ready for your race.
   
2. On the N3 going towards Pietermaritzburg (from Pavilion Mall)
   
3. 44.0 km Take exit 57 toward Camperdown
   
4. 400 m Turn left at P418 (signs for R603/Umbumbulu)
   
5. 3.1 km Turn left at R603 (to Eston / Umbumbulu)
   
6. 4.1 km Turn right at P502 Ingomankulu (sign to Eden Cassi wedding venue)
   
7. 6.0 km this road become dirt after about 5.5km
   
8. Then there is a three-way fork, take extreme left fork to Southfork Farm.
   
   

Race registration
Every entrant must register and check in to get a race number (and this is where you will get your goody bag and the first 500 entrants will get their T-Shirts). Registration for the Mudman events will take place from 7am and the Mudskipper registration is from 9.30am. Late entries will be taken from 7am until 8am.

Parking
Parking space is limited so please get there early. There is a bit of a walk (up to 200m) from the parking to the race village.

Entrance to the dam
There is an entry fee of R25. This all goes directly to the Thornlea Dam for the upkeep of the dam. Please try to have the correct change to speed up entrance to the dam.

For any more queries please contact Tim on 072 12 52 382.

NEWS FROM DHS

Welcome back to what is sure to be a hectic second term. The school has been incredibly busy over the holiday period. Up until a few years ago, the only festivals at Easter were the main rugby ones in Jo’burg. These were for 1st Teams only. Nowadays that has changed dramatically, and there are festivals all over the country in all the major sports. DHS is a sought after participant in these events and as a result almost 300 boys and more than 30 staff were involved in fixtures during the Easter break. Quite a busy time! And a successful one too. Particularly pleasing was the performance of our U 14 Rugby side. They were unbeaten at the highly competitive Skonk Nicholson Festival, and also beat Wonderboom High School last Friday. They are developing into a very capable side, and it is also wonderful to see that we are fielding 6 sides at U14 level. Quite clearly the school’s efforts to upgrade our rugby performance is paying off. Things look good for the future!
Have a great term.

Regards
Dave Magner
Class of 1968